Ch.5Survivors (2)

*Thud. Thud.*

A man wearing a beanie walks out of the elevator. Greasy hair and a gloomy expression. Something is wriggling inside the sack he’s holding.

It seems alive. What could it be?

“……”

The man doesn’t even glance my way and heads straight to knock on the door of the first apartment. Room 701. The place that serves as a sort of meeting room for the survivors gathered here.

*Clank-*

Soon Choi Jun-gi and the unfamiliar man step outside. They face each other.

“I found that student from before.”

“What? Seonghun? He’s alive?”

*Plop plop plop.*

The contents of the sack spill onto the apartment hallway. Slimy, dark red lumps. They continue to move even after falling to the floor.

Could that be…? No, it can’t be.

Choi Jun-gi bites his lip with a devastated expression.

“It’s a transformation.”

“That’s right. I found it wandering around the stairway on the 8th floor. It probably got lost somewhere nearby. Or else.”

“Or else?”

“It might have moved unconsciously after becoming like this. It’s slow now because it’s lost strength, but just a few hours ago, it was moving quite fast.”

Muscle chunks twist and turn in the pool of blood.

The thought that this was once a person makes my blood run cold.

After a long silence, Choi Jun-gi speaks heavily.

“Seonghun said he was going to check out Zone A on the 13th floor two weeks ago. Kim Min-jun went with him but came back alone. He said they made it safely to the 13th floor. That’s when the accident happened. But how could he be found on the 8th floor?”

“He probably crawled all the way down the stairs.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I confirmed the traces left behind myself.”

The living flesh leaves red tracks on the apartment hallway.

“So this is really Seonghun?”

“Yes. All his belongings were scattered around nearby.”

Choi Jun-gi takes a deep breath and changes the subject.

“Then why did you bring it here? We talked about this before. When someone becomes like this during exploration—”

“This case is different.”

“What?”

“This isn’t just ordinary flesh.”

The air suddenly becomes dry. Choi Jun-gi glares at the stranger with bloodshot eyes, while the unfamiliar man hesitantly explains.

The tense atmosphere continues, ready to explode at any moment.

“This lump has incredible healing properties. He probably got lost and wandered into some kind of ‘healing space.’ Then the ‘transformation’ process intervened. If you just place it on a wound, it should regenerate new flesh.”

“Stop it.”

“From my tests, it could even completely repair an entire arm. You’d have to use all of it, but restoring damaged body parts is incredible.”

“I said stop it, you bastard.”

“I think I know what you’re thinking, but this is—!”

“Park Sungjin!!!!!”

Choi Jun-gi’s voice echoes through the hallway.

“Are you even human? Do you want to live by eating corpses? Seonghun was with us until two weeks ago. Don’t you remember? He always carried the heaviest loads when we organized the storage. And now you’re treating him like some medicinal cream?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“What else could you mean?!!! Will you start experimenting next? Why not mass-produce it, since sacrificing just a few people might bring back the dead? Huh?!!!”

After catching his breath, Choi Jun-gi mutters quietly.

“Go bury it. I won’t tolerate this.”

“……Understood.”

The stranger named Park Sungjin leaves, and Choi Jun-gi remains alone in the hallway. With his head bowed, he raises his fist and strikes the front door.

*Crash!*

The sound reverberates through the walls. It feels like the building might collapse. The slime left on the floor. The suffocating air. I feel like throwing up.

We joked around. Got annoyed with each other. I thought this was a space where we could feel safe. I had momentarily forgotten that people could die here.

“Oppa. This way.”

I backed toward the familiar voice. Room 705. Yoon Daju was gesturing to me quietly.

Inside Daju’s neatly decorated apartment. Outside, angry screams can be heard.

Daju pulls me by the wrist all the way to the bedroom and sits me down beside her.

This time, there are no words. Heavy silence. Daju, who usually only jokes around, wears an expressionless face this time.

“……Seonghun. He was a very energetic kid. He used to live in room 704.”

“So that’s why it became empty.”

“Yes.”

“There’s no point in grieving over each one, since this kind of thing happens all the time here. It’s incredibly easy to die, but staying still doesn’t guarantee safety either. Everyone who comes here has already died or been injured quite a bit. Sometimes it can be fun to bet on it. Like betting on who dies first. But if the person who made the bet dies, who gets the money? I don’t know.”

“……You mentioned transformation. Is it similar to what I experienced?”

“Yes. Actually, your case is the unusual one.”

Daju, who had been talking non-stop, drops her gaze to the floor.

Keeping her eyes fixed on the floor, she continues with a choked voice.

“Oppa. Remember what I told you before? About that man who went to the library.”

“Yes.”

“That man picked up the wrong book and just melted away. I still don’t know what book it was. Maybe a chocolate fairy tale. Or something about candles. Or ice cream. Or ice… Anyway, what I’m trying to say is! It seems like if you trigger the wrong condition, you get cursed. You transform into something completely horrible. That’s what they call transformation. And then. Ah, what was I trying to say? I suddenly can’t remember. Aha…ha…”

“Oppa. Do you know why I called you here?”

“Why?”

Daju raises her head. Voluminous bob cut. An excessively cute impression. Yet inside those proud-looking eyes, tears are welling up.

*Squeeze.*

“I really hate this atmosphere. That man is angry. Everyone else is just curled up alone in their homes.”

“……”

“I wish this was just a normal apartment, where nobody died. That would have been nice. I don’t understand why this is happening. *Hiccup*. I don’t understand. Why…”

This time it wasn’t my shoulder. Daju wrapped her arms around my waist and collapsed against me.

A warm, soft feeling. I silently looked down at Daju.

“We’ll be able to get out.”

“Huu-hic. Huuu-hic…”

“And no one else will die.”

Even though she had suddenly become a small woman, I made a promise without any plan to back it up.

***

Late afternoon. The sunset is already reflecting. I slipped out from under Daju’s head as she slept and hopped off the bed.

That man with the beanie. His name was Park Sungjin.

There’s something I need to find out.

– Access to this document requires A0 or higher clearance.

Classification: lemma-003

Overview:

– A general term for anomalous phenomena involving the collapse and recombination of the human body. Causes and cases are described below as lm003-1, lm003-2. Cases with unknown causes also exist and are documented in the consolidated lm003-# file.

– Suspected connection to lemma-001, but no significant research methodology has been proposed to date.

– No known method of reversal. Theories suggest time interference or reality anchor principles may be effective, but further research is needed.